Mission San Xavier

This morning I squeezed in a quick visit to the San Xavier Mission in Tucson before I headed to the airport to head home.

It is an interesting structure, rising out of the flat of Tucson like a white wedding cake in the desert. It's a little south of the airport, on the edge of the reservation, and in the middle of nothing. The sanctuary was finished in 1797, and has been an active Catholic church since 1911. According to the guide books, it is one of the best examples of Spanish Mission architecture still standing. It's also known as the White Dove of the Desert.

The building is currently in the middle of an ambitious restoration campaign, and thus one of the two front towers of the facade is hidden by scaffolding. The interior is a wonder - heavily carved, covered in murals, and full of wooden figurative statues - more than 50 in all. It was apparently dark and dingy before they cleaned it up, and now it is light and colorful.

The building shows homage to the big European cathedrals - but the execution of it was enacted with local materials, probably by local craftsmen. The result is a delightful blend of big ideas in humble materials. It has buttresses and domes made of textured plaster rather than of stone, with lots of painting to make them look like colored marble. Some of the walls are painted to resemble tapestries and fabrics. The figures have traditional saintly poses, but have more locally ethnic features, and show evidence of being once brightly painted in fiesta-like colors. The saint behind the altar is wearing actual garments.

Sometimes it's difficult to appreciate a mission - I don't care for what they represent as I believe it is beyond arrogant for invaders to shove their faith down the throats of the locals. I think the idea of God is far too vast for the constraints of any one religion. That said, these buildings stand as historical documents, with lessons to impart. As an art history lesson, this one is a peach.

Subtle by comparison

Long time, no blog. Sorry about that.

This weekend, I'm in Tucson, Arizona. As luck would have it, they are having an unseasonably "warm" snap, not dissimilar to the one we've had in California - just hotter. This is desert, after all. This sure has been a funky year for weather... hotter hots (90's in LA in early March), colder colds (feet of snow in Seattle with my friends Karen and John), unusual flip-flops of season at inappropriate times.

Tucson, on first look, and of course in comparison to Simi Valley, is brown and flat. Neither trees nor buildings out here are very tall, and it all sprawls out on the floor of the valley. The roads follow a pretty easy grid system downtown, although some bright spark decided that it would be cool to have numbered roads in both directions... 6th Street runs north to south, 6th Avenue runs east to west. And yes, there is a section where they weave across each other. I met a gal that owns a coffee shop at 4th and 5th today, and I'd like to stop by tomorrow for breakfast. The odds are good that I'll go to the wrong 4th and 5th first!

Having grown up in Merrye Olde England, I notice green. In Southern California, we have a lot of green because we plant grass in the middle of our desert and water it incessantly. In Tucson, they're a little more environmental about it, planting what grows, embracing what is supposed to be here. The lack of green is shocking, but understanding the eco bent makes up for it. The light is clear, the space expansive, and the natural beauty subtle.

It also occurs to me that I have grown so used to the density of LA that it took me a while to grasp that the town wasn't deserted, just more spread out. They also haven't embraced LA's seeming need to tear everything down every 10 years to start over - or at least to change the facade to the flavor of the decade (remember the Miami Vice pinks and peaches in the 80's?). There are some interesting older buildings, and tons of fabulous old signage, all perfectly serviceable and thus all still standing. I really enjoy how that gives the place character. The picture above is one such character - a building that was once a video store and is still a memorial. It was also heartwarming to see that despite its defunct state, the mural wasn't covered in tags. A subtle respect for the art.